Few people can keep up with US rap phenomenon Megan Thee Stallion, let alone upstage her. But Lick – her recent collaboration with Jamaican dancehall artist Shenseea – proves it is at least possible. That’s partly thanks to the latter’s imperious, hypnotically rhythmic flow, but also because of the things she says. Lick is an ode to receiving oral sex, and Shenseea pays tribute in eye-wateringly blunt style (sample lyric: “Me want me pum-pum sucked, sucked, sucked”).
It’s a theme that continues throughout the 25-year-old’s debut album: even taking into account dancehall’s sexually explicit lyrical tradition, Shenseea is staggeringly profane. Sometimes this is pushed to the point of unintentional comedy (the sweetly romantic slow jam Deserve It somehow manages to find room for the line “put that pussy in a hearse every time”) but usually it feels like a suitable accompaniment to the uninhibited, thundering energy of her music.
